

Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo
Roy H. Williams
Thousands of people are starting their workweeks with smiles of invigoration as they log on to their computers to find their Monday Morning Memo just waiting to be devoured. Straight from the middle-of-the-night keystrokes of Roy H. Williams, the MMMemo is an insightful and provocative series of well-crafted thoughts about the life of business and the business of life.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 21, 2022 • 4min
Let’s Go Time-Traveling
Gordon Atkinson’s Land of La Mancha is the finest literary work of loneliness that has been chronicled since Henry David Thoreau spent 2 years on Walden Pond.Here is how Thoreau opens that most iconic of early American books:“When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months.”Walden Pond, by the way, is only 2.2 miles from the old North Bridge in Concord where a British soldier fired “the shot heard ’round the world” that triggered the Revolutionary War.Come with me now to July, 1845 when Henry David Thoreau first arrived at Walden Pond:It has been only 69 years since Thomas Jefferson wrote that document by which 13 colonies of England broke away from King George and banded together to form this baby nation. (To put this in perspective, it has been 69 years since Chevrolet introduced the Corvette. – RHW) There are tens of thousands of Americans today who can remember growing up in the 13 colonies. They can recall reading the newspapers of Benjamin Franklin with his constant showering of articles advocating “No Taxation Without Representation” and how their fingertips became blackened by newspaper ink that was not quite dry.Florida became the 27th state 90 days ago and Johnny Appleseed died 15 days later. There is talk of the Republic of Texas also becoming a state. The newspapers of New York are buzzing about a new poem by Poe in which a raven walks around saying, “Nevermore.”That was America on the day Henry David Thoreau wandered off into those woods from which he and his book Walden would emerge 2 years and 2 months later.You’ve never read Walden? Here is a short passage from “Brute Neighbors,” one of the later chapters:“The mice which haunted my house were not the common ones, which are said to have been introduced into the country, but a wild native kind not found in the village. I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested him much. When I was building, one of these had its nest underneath the house, and before I had laid the second floor, and swept out the shavings, would come out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before; and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel, which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I leaned with my elbow on the bench one day, it ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round and round the paper which held my dinner, while I kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bopeep with it; and when at last I held still a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward cleaned its face and paws, like a fly, and walked away.”Gordon Atkinson is still writing his book, Land of La Mancha, but 3 days ago he posted 25 entries from the journal he has been keeping since the day he became the inaugural artist-in-residence at Wizard Academy.Gordon and I have not yet spoken. You will understand why when you read what he has written.Roy H. Williams

Mar 14, 2022 • 7min
Was I Wrong in 2011?
In 2011, the attention of our nation was consumed by the economic problems caused by the sub-prime mortgage debacle of 2008. That’s why everyone thought I was crazy when I wrote these words…“Western Society is in danger of becoming self-righteous, sanctimonious and insufferably judgmental. If history is to be our guide, the next 20 years will be when we move from our agreement of mutual brokenness, ‘I’m Not Okay – You’re Not Okay,’ to embrace a self-righteous indignation, ‘I’m Okay – You’re Not Okay.’ Sanctimonious vigilante-ism will become popular as indignant leaders demonize their enemies and rally their followers by appealing to their inborn sense of rightness and social obligation, ‘Let’s clean this place up and to hell with compromise. They are entirely wrong and we are entirely right. They are stupid. We are wise. They are evil. We are good.’”“The last time we went through this, America formed a committee in Congress called the House Un-American Activities Committee (1938) and later watched with glee while Senator Joseph McCarthy destroyed countless lives by recklessly branding his enemies as ‘Communists,’ and creating the infamous blacklists.”“This sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it? I know it does. I’m writing because I want you to be able to look back and recall how absurd this all sounded when I first told you what was on the horizon.”I brought that 11-year-old prediction to your attention because I’m going to share something else that I see poking it’s head up over the horizon.Are you familiar with the argument that roared among the founding fathers during the 1790’s?Thomas Jefferson feared tyranny and was worried that a strong Federal government would stifle individual freedoms. He envisioned a decentralized republic built of small, agricultural towns. Alexander Hamilton feared anarchy and desired the structure and order that a strong Federal government would provide. He envisioned centralized, efficient power at the top of the pyramid.When the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 that restricted the activities of foreign residents and limited freedom of speech and of the press, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which called on state legislatures to nullify federal laws.I believe we are seeing the acceleration of that argument between “Federal Power” Hamilton and “States Power” Jefferson, but I believe this time Jefferson will win.I know you would like me to speak plainly, so I will. But first I want to make it clear that I am not advocating the thing I am about to describe. In 2011 I didn’t want to see our nation degenerate into two polarized groups that were equally self-righteous, sanctimonious and insufferably judgmental, but it happened anyway. Likewise, I don’t want to see a surging escalation of state’s rights that ultimately cause our nation to become an expanded and updated version of the European Union, but I believe that is where we are headed.By 2033 you will hear this idea of “each state doing their own thing” being proposed by Alpha Voices that will arise and popularize it.Ten years later, the “ME” cycle of 2043 will be launched in the heady delusion that all of America’s problems can be solved by letting each state become, in essence, its own little country. America will maintain a common currency and a standing army to defend the member states, but the real power of the nation will have shifted to the governors and state legislatures. When you cross a state line the laws will change in profound and meaningful ways.By 2063 we will have begun to realize that if you sow to the wind, you reap a whirlwind, and we will begin to mourn what we left behind.I will be 105 years old in 2063 so it is unlikely that I will be paying much attention. But that’s okay. I’ve already seen this movie, I know how it ends.Roy H. WilliamsPS – I apologize if this seems unfair, but I did not write these things to you so that we could have a discussion about it. In truth, I would rather go to the dentist and have a root canal without anesthesia. But about once a decade I see the future clearly and write down what I see. I am prepared to be wrong. In fact, I hope I am wrong. But this is not a subject I really want to talk about. I wrote today’s Monday Morning Memo so that it can gather dust in the archives and be read by historians of the future who will say, “Well, he was only stating the obvious.” – RHWHindsight is that moment when smug academicians look at what was once impossible and call it “inevitable.” – Indy Beagle

Mar 7, 2022 • 5min
The Purpose of Heroes
Johnny Molson sent me a video of an elderly Ukrainian woman walking up to a heavily armed Russian soldier, the point man of a force that was occupying her town. Looking him in the face, she said, “Put sunflower seeds in your pocket so flowers will grow when you die.” *The note that came with the video said, “That’s a Patrick Henry/Paul Revere level story. That’s the shit Churchill wished he would have said.”Johnny’s note caused me to remember two things. The first was a passage from a remarkable op-ed from Yuval Noah Harari in London’s 200-year-old newspaper, The Guardian:“Nations are ultimately built on stories. Each passing day adds more stories that Ukrainians will tell not only in the dark days ahead, but in the decades and generations to come. The president who refused to flee the capital, telling the US that he needs ammunition, not a ride; the soldiers from Snake Island who told a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”; the civilians who tried to stop Russian tanks by sitting in their path. This is the stuff nations are built from. In the long run, these stories count for more than tanks.”The second thing Johnny’s note brought to mind was something I wrote 19 years ago:Heroes are dangerous things. Bigger than life, highly exaggerated and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie.We have historic heroes, folk heroes and comic book heroes. We have heroes in books and songs and movies and sport. We have heroes of morality, leadership, kindness and excellence. And nothing is so devastating to our sense of wellbeing as a badly fallen hero. Yes, heroes are dangerous things to have.The only thing more dangerous is not to have them.Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They are ever-present tattoos on our psyche, the embodiment of all we are striving to be.We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they attempt to create us in their own image.Most people assume that legends, myths and stories of heroes are simply the byproducts of great civilizations, but I’m convinced they are the cause of them. Throughout history, the mightiest civilizations have been the ones with stories of heroes; larger-than-life role models that inspired ordinary citizens to rise up and do amazing things.Americans are united, at least for a moment, to set aside our petty bickering as we gaze in wonder at the people of Ukraine.My prayer is that Volodymyr Zelensky, his family and his nation, emerge from these dark days alive and free.Amen.Roy H. WilliamsPS – I have liked all of the Russians I have ever met. My strong suspicion is that Vladimir Putin does not represent the hearts of the people of Russia. One more thing: many of you have asked me about William and Sasha, Wizard Academy’s ambassadors to Russia. I have been very careful in my communications with them in recent days since Vladimir is angry with America and it might not be beneficial to be seen as having a lot of American friends right now. – RHW*The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine, which makes grandma even more of a badass. – Indy

Feb 28, 2022 • 4min
Look, See, and Feel.
Motivational speakers often tell their followers to visualize accomplishing their desired outcomes; to mentally go into the future and feel the joy of that not-yet-happened moment.Visualization is the mental rehearsal of possible future events.When the word “rehearse” was invented more than 700 years ago, it meant to hear again; to re-hear.I am an ad writer. My job is to get people to repeatedly imagine doing what my clients want them to do. I want prospective customers to live those events in their minds.I could just as easily have been a songwriter.Each time you imagine an action that is followed by a sequence of events, you move precipitously closer to taking that action and bringing those events to pass.Athletes in every sport are taught this by their coaches.This is why I don’t listen to country music. I don’t want to visualize those events and imagine those feelings.Visualization – mental rehearsal – is a powerful thing.Visualization affects one-and-a-half percent of us a little more strongly than it does most people. We are the ones who are warned by psychologists not to get involved in role-playing games because we can get lost in the characters we play and lose touch with reality.This is why, for me, listening to a country song about heart-breaking loss and gut-wrenching grief is exactly like watching a horror movie. But I believe I understand the appeal of country music to people who are not afflicted with my condition. Shauna Niequist writes, “My friend Eve told me once that the ability to cry is a sign of health, because it means your body and your soul agree on something.”If I am right, people love country music because it helps them remember the things that are important in their lives.As Solomon said in the 23rd division of the book of Proverbs, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”His words apply equally to both of us, I think.To me, Solomon is saying, “Do not be in your mind the man you do not want to be.”But to the country music fan, Solomon is saying, “Feel deep and meaningful feelings in your mind if you want to be a deep and meaningful person.”I could be wrong. I have certainly been wrong before. But I do not think I am wrong this time.Roy H. Williams

Feb 21, 2022 • 6min
Branding is Not Informational. It is Relational.
A brief summary of this episodeThe goal of branding is to build a relationship with future customers. When a relationship has finally been established, you become who these people think of immediately – and feel the best about – when they, or any of their friends, need what you sell.Direct marketers often disdain mass media because it doesn’t allow them to “target and track” their prey. But these same Direct Marketers will give heavy bags of money to online influencers. It never occurs to them that every person listening to the radio or watching TV is an influencer of approximately 250 people.These 250 people are their Realm of Association. They are the people who listen to them when they speak. They are mostly friends and co-workers, but some of them are family.You have people in your life – acquaintances – with whom you are familiar, but they never quite made it into that circle that is your true Realm of Association.Here’s my question for you. Do you trust those people who never contact you unless they want something from you?Those people remind me of direct marketers. They target you – get something from you – and walk away smiling.Your true friends are the ones who spend time with you, who make you smile, laugh, feel good, and rarely ask for anything at all.A brand that you love is like a friend.Ads are either transactional or relational. A long series of transactional ads does not build a brand. It builds name awareness, yes, but not a brand.If I reach and win only 10 percent of your realm of association through my focused use of mass media, but you – my future customer – are not within that 10 percent, I am not worried in the slightest. My relational ads will have won the hearts of 25 of your best friends and it is likely that one or more of them will get my message to you when you finally need what I sell. If I reach and win 20% of your community through my relentless use of cheap and effective mass media, I will have reached 50 of your best friends.Decisions are rarely made in a vacuum.Each of us is surrounded by influencers who do not have blogs or podcasts or YouTube channels, but we value their opinions very highly. We trust the recommendations of our friends.“Reaching the right people” is not the secret to building a brand. The secret is to say and do the right things.Getting attention is easy. Any fool can do it.To win a person’s heart, you have to hold that attention. You have to nurture that little spark by the breath of your mouth and then blow it into a flame by your actions. You have to cause people to look forward to their next encounter with you. You have to make them enjoy spending time with you.This, mon chéri, is branding.Brand building is not something you test.Brand building is something you do.Your first encounter with a cold contact will be Low CAP.Low Conversion.Low Average sale.Low Profit margin.But when that contact types your name into the search block because they are looking for you – precisely you – those encounters will be High CAP.Direct marketers wear their CAPs low.Brand builders wear their CAPs high.The most successful direct marketers are those who first built their brands, then began offering specific things to their brand families at specific times, all the while maintaining and nourishing that bond their customers feel with the brand.My personal formula is one-third transactional ads, two-thirds relational.Television and radio advertising are astoundingly cheap and effective. They are the way to go if you want to build a brand. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.Aroo,Roy H. Williams

Feb 14, 2022 • 7min
When Words are Images and Images are Words
There are four kinds of thought.Verbal Thought is hearing a voice in your mind.Analytical Thought is deductive reasoning that seeks to forecast a result.Abstract Thought embraces fantasy and all things intangible.Symbolic Thought relates the unknown to the known. The pattern-recognition power of the right brain connects new ideas [abstract thought] with known information [analytical thought] in the deductive reasoning left brain.Symbolic Thought allows you to communicate the abstract by pointing to something familiar that shares an essential attribute with the abstraction you are trying to describe. This is the essence of all similes and metaphors.“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic…”– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline“murmuring…”“bearded…”“garments…”“Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic…”We’re talking about trees, remember?Symbols are a language of the mind.But that observation is just the beginning.I have no proof of what I am about to tell you. So if you continue to read, please understand that I will be sharing nothing more than a deeply held pet theory of mine. I can reference no sources other than 25 years of experimentation and my conversations with Indy.I believe the 4 types of thought are composed of 12 essential languages. Think of these 12 languages as the Operating System of the mind.I believe Numbers are a language of the mind.There are things that can be said in the language of Numbers that can be said in no other language. It is easier to learn mathematics when you think of Numbers as a language and the order of operations in math as the grammar and syntax of that language.I believe Color is a language. Red and pink say different things.Likewise, Shape is a language. A curve says something different than an angle.Arranging colors and shapes so they speak to us is the essence of composition in photos, paintings and illustrations. It is the basis of architecture, Feng Shui, and industrial design (cars, jewelry, furniture, etc.) In fact, it underlies every type of visual communication that causes people to think and feel a certain way.The human mind is given wings by its unique ability to attach complex meanings to sounds.When you use words, you are rapidly choosing which of the 44 Phonemes of the English language shares an essential attribute with the fractional abstraction you are trying to describe.Yes, the entirety of the English language is composed of just 44 sounds. This is not a pet theory of mine. This is settled science among the linguists of the world.When you speak or write, you are connecting Phonemes together in rapid succession to create words – sounds – that represent what you are trying to communicate.Did you know the written word has no meaning until it has been translated into the spoken word it represents? Graphemes, the letters of the alphabet and certain combinations of those letters like ch, sh, and th, merely represent the sounds – the phonemes – to which we attach deep meaning.Look again at ch, sh, and th. Don’t say the names of the letters in your mind. Make the sounds that each of those two-letter combinations represent, “ch,” “sh,” “th”Did it occur to you that “th” has two different sounds? Voiced “th” is the sound we hear in “the”. Unvoiced “th” is the sound we hear in “with”.It is my belief that a basic understanding of the 12 Languages of the Mind will make you a better communicator. Indy Beagle gave you a glimpse of one of the Languages – Symbol – before he got carried away in today’s illustration. And I gave you a glimpse of 4 of them: Number, Color, Shape, and Phoneme.Perhaps one day, if you are interested, we’ll tell you about the other seven.Roy H. Williams

Feb 7, 2022 • 5min
Storm’s Passion
Storm is a character in my mind.No, not so much a character as a caricature, an icon, an archetype.I occasionally meet Storm in the real world. Storm is sometimes male, sometimes female.You’ve met Storm, too.Storm is easily infatuated. Storm is in love with Love. Storm talks a lot about passion.But Storm is a rabbit, a mouse who runs at the first sign of difficulty or hardship.Don’t tell me what you are passionate about, Storm. Show me.Storm, I am old. I have lived many lives and I can tell you with certainty that commitment is the only true form of passion.Passion is not a feeling of fluffy-headed excitement. Passion is suffering. My friend Manley Miller taught me this.Passion comes from the Latin word “Pati,” the root word of Patience. We think of patience as an ability to wait. But patience, more accurately, is an ability to suffer.Compassion means “to suffer with,” to become a partner in the suffering of others. Compassionate people feel the pain of persons other than themselves.“…for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health…”Better and richer and health speak of hope.Worse and poorer and sickness speak of passion.Storm, let no one deceive you. Passion does not produce commitment. Commitment produces passion.Have you never heard about the injustices endured by that boy who was born less than 9 months after his parents were married, who then spent his life bringing peace and help and hope to others? He endured mockery, false arrest, a sham trial, a bullwhipping, and then spikes were driven through his hands and feet. They call these events, “The Passion of Christ.”Passion, at its core, is a parching thirst that cries out to be quenched.No, Storm. You are not passionate. You lack the commitment to be.I am finished talking to Storm. Now I am talking to you. Have you been saying, “I can’t find my passion”?Would you like to be passionate? Would you like to feel so strongly about something that you would be willing to suffer for it? Passion is a fire easily lit: just make a commitment and don’t look back, or left, or right; only forward.Make a commitment. Pay the price of it.Mark Jennison has a passion for the gym. I know this because he goes to the gym every day and suffers.Princess Pennie has a passion for gardening. I know this because I see her on her knees, patiently digging and planting and weeding and pruning to create a look and feel of harmony across acres of land.Brad Whittington has compassion for the homeless. I know this because he cooks for them and drives to an unsettling place to serve them one-by-one, face-to-face.Commitment is the only true form of passion.Make a commitment. Passion will follow.Aroo,Roy H. Williams

Jan 31, 2022 • 4min
Carl Jung, Peter Pan, and Egypt
You and I spoke last week about shadows being “holes in the light” that speak of past actions and their consequences.We are not the first to make that observation.The ancient Egyptians believed your shadow was the spent energy coming off you and dying in this world. Your shadow was separate from you but part of you, always there. The reason you could not see your shadow at night is because darkness swallows darkness.“The spent energy coming off you and dying in this world” sounds a lot like past actions and their consequences, don’t you think?Psychologist Carl Jung spoke of our shadow as the darkness within each of us. He said,“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is… forming an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions… In myths the hero is the one who conquers the dragon, not the one who is devoured by it. And yet both have to deal with the same dragon. Also, he is no hero who never met the dragon, or who, if once he saw it, declared afterwards that he saw nothing. Only one who has risked the fight with the dragon and is not overcome by it wins the hoard, the ‘treasure hard to attain’. He alone has a genuine claim to self-confidence, for he has faced the dark ground of ‘self’ and thereby has gained himself… He has arrived at an inner certainty which makes him capable of self-reliance.”Did you notice that Carl Jung was speaking of past actions and their consequences?When Peter Pan first meets Wendy, she sews his shadow back on for him. Author J.M. Barrie used the shadow of Peter Pan as a symbol to help us better understand this “boy who would never grow up.” For Peter to be able to fly, Peter cannot have a shadow that binds him to the ground. He cannot have memories of the past. He cannot have memories of his mother.Victoria Rego writes,“In a moment of darkness, laying in my bed I suddenly remember Peter accepting his shadow before Wendy was able to sew it back on. It hit me in that moment that this is what we do with trauma. We tuck it away for safe keeping until we are either ready or forced to deal with it. This is how shadow work begins. When we do shadow work, we are learning to become aware of beliefs, ideas, triggers that we have been avoiding, parts of ourselves that we tuck away, so they do not ’cause trouble.’ Acknowledging these aspects of ourselves allows us to heal and find balance within ourselves.”I believe Carl Jung would have endorsed Victoria Rego’s observation.Are you ready to talk about history’s most famous shadow?David, that boy who slew a giant with a sling and then became a great king wrote of this greatest-of-all-shadows 3,000 years ago,“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me…”Death, that final consequence of all our actions, casts a very great shadow indeed. It is a mountain that looms before us and none can escape it.But take hope, my friend. That mountain would not cast a shadow in this valley where we walk except there be a bright and happy light on the other side.Aroo,

Jan 24, 2022 • 4min
Shadows and Silhouettes
Your actions cast a shadow across space and time, affecting people directly – or indirectly – for generations.You already know this.The rest of what I’m about to tell you is speculative, but I believe I am right:Visually, a shadow is a hole in the light. A shadow carries the distorted shape of a moment beyond the moment itself. A shadow speaks of consequences.A silhouette is not a shadow. A silhouette is what we see when we look toward the light. A silhouette speaks of things to come.Painters and writers and photographers and historians and the makers of movies have always seen this, always known it.You have always known it, too.Shadows speak of the past. Silhouettes speak of the future. When you see a silhouette on the horizon, you immediately think, “And then what happened?”You can use these ideas to deepen the subtlety and artistry of your communication. Don’t worry that your reader/listener/viewer won’t understand. Trust their deep intuition. Trust the right hemispheres of their brains, that half whose principal function is to make connections and predictions through the recognition of patterns.Gut feelings, hunches, premonitions, and intuitions are psychological products of that wordless, pattern-recognizing logic of the right hemispheres of our brains.Zig-zagging enthusiastically back-and-forth across that landscape of possibilities, making connections and seeing patterns, you have a beagle in your brain.I call mine Indy.What do you call yours?Roy H. WilliamsPS – Einstein was a scientist who saw that time and space and reality itself were tied to the speed of light. E = MC2 : E – the energy in a thing = M – its mass x C2 – the speed of light, squared.In the first chapter of an ancient Jewish book of Beginnings, God says, “Let there be light” and our universe springs into existence. Scientists call this the Big Bang. Einstein, being Jewish, was familiar with the original story.We call it the speed of light, but a more accurate way to think of it would be the speed of reality; the frame-rate of the universe.Indy Beagle will explain the math of this conjecture in the rabbit hole. To enter the rabbit hole just click the silhouette of Indiana Beagle standing at the bottom of the clock in the image at the top of the memo. Each click of an image in the rabbit hole will take you one page deeper. This week, there are 20 pages in all.– RHW

Jan 17, 2022 • 4min
Correct and Expected, Right and Proper
I learned about advertising from listening to my eighth-grade football coaches.“Every play is a touchdown play if everyone on the team does their assignment properly.”That was one of the two things they bellowed at us every day. The other one was this:“If you succeed in football, you will succeed in life.”I was only 12 years old but that didn’t mean I was an idiot. I finished that season, but I never played football again. Those coaches believed what they were saying and that made my head spin because I knew it wasn’t true.If you believe, deep in your bones, in always doing what is correct and expected, right and proper, then I want you to be the engineer that builds the bridges I drive across. I want you to be the surgeon that operates on me. I want you to be the policeman that cruises the streets I drive. I want you to be the running back, the tight end, the wide receiver of the team I am playing against.When you’re playing offense and you know exactly what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, the defense knows it, too. You’re “telegraphing the play.” Defenders can read you like an open book.When you’re carrying the ball and the defenders don’t know what you’re about to do, it’s because you, yourself, don’t know. You are an amazing “broken field runner” because you make every decision at the last split second. You are never where anyone expected you to be. They leap to tackle you and grab empty air.If you believe in doing what is correct and expected, right and proper, I want you to write all the ads for the company my client and I are competing against.Predictable platitudes drip from the lips of people who say what is correct and expected, right and proper. Predictable platitudes flow like ink from the pens of the world’s worst ad writers. Predictable platitudes cause people to roll their eyes and say, “Get real.”I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to be offended. I’ve never met a great ad writer who was taught how to write ads in college.Great ad writing is counterintuitive.You learn how to write great ads by keeping careful track of all the good ideas that should have worked, but didn’t. When you finally run out of good ideas and decide to do something crazy, dangerous, and ill-advised, tell your neighbors to keep an eye on the sky because the airshow and the fireworks are about to be spectacular.Congratulations, you have finally written a good ad.Every play is a touchdown play when your team is the only team on the field. But that’s not how football is played, is it? When you begin with the wrong premise, you always reach the wrong conclusion.To write an ad that is “correct and expected, right and proper” is the most foolish thing you can do.That’s all I have to say today, but Indy Beagle is going to take this discussion to a much deeper level in the rabbit hole.That’s where I’m headed now.Care to join me?Roy H. Williams


